Traditional Crafts Create a Contemporary Collection
Two independent designers, Maria Bubuioc and Mihai Stamati, recently came together to work on a project entitled 'Quintessence'. This beautiful little series of furniture is the result. Inspired by traditional Moldovan and Romanian craftsmanship, Quintessence tugs at the heartstrings. The design duo started by studying the natural materials available in their countries and around the areas they came from in order to understand regional crafts and techniques. They discovered that natural materials are hard to find, despite the clear benefits of using woods, leathers and natural cords.

The pair soon focused on textiles and explored materials such as linen, hemp yarn, manually woven hemp textiles, reeds and feathers that could be combined with wooden structures. In the past, these materials were commonly found in country homes and were collected and produced by the peasants themselves. One of the guiding principles of the project was to work with local manufacturers to support the production of handmade materials and encourage the practice of crafts. With these worthy principles in mind, the result of this local collaboration is a collection of sustainable and meaningful pieces of furniture, each of them with a story: a reed bench, a rocking chair, a floor lamp, three little poufs, a coffee table and a crochet rug. Simple, beautiful and with such a compelling back story, Quintessence is the sort of collection we can really get behind.